


sketches

by galpalaven



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), F/M, First Kiss, Making Out, Pre-Canon, Sort of? - Freeform, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2017-12-01
Packaged: 2019-02-09 02:41:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12878454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galpalaven/pseuds/galpalaven
Summary: “I know it’s only been a short time… but I feel like I’ve known you for years.”In which Nox makes a rather startling discovery in a little nook in the palace library.





	sketches

“I thought you were supposed to be on Lucio duty today,” Julian’s voice says from his little cubby as she wanders into the library, idly grabbing a book from her pile on a table near the middle of the room as she walks by.

Nox shoots him a tired smile, just as Kala gives an annoyed huff behind her. Her familiar stalks over to the pile of pillows by the big window, flopping onto them to nap in the sun as Nox drags a chair over to Julian’s desk. A breeze floats in from the open window, warm and sweet with the summer bloom. Her eyes start to itch, just to remind her of her mortality, but she can’t be bothered by something so small today.

“He still hasn’t apologized to Nadia for the comment he made the other day,” she sighs, sliding sideways into the chair so that her back is pressed to the bookshelf, propping her arm up on the back of the chair. “So Asra’s with him right now.”

“Ha, I bet he’s enjoying  _that_.”

She snorts, shaking her head as she reaches for one of the stacks of notes. “I’m sure. So, I was reading last night when I couldn’t sleep,” she begins, reaching for the quill and inkwell on his side of the table. “And I think I have an idea for how to help with the insane temperature spikes…”

And they jump right into theorizing, both suddenly filled with fresh determination, feeding off of each other’s enthusiasm. They must be halfway through all of the books in the library, she thinks as she pulls down another stack or three at some point in the day. She hasn’t read so much about magical properties of plants in years, and even less so about the inner-workings of the human body—her father had taught her a good deal of healing magic, and that was part of the reason the Count even kept her around at all (after single-handedly pulling him back from the brink of boiling to death under his own fever), but it was kind of nice.

Of course, it was also nice getting to work with the handsome doctor man for hours and hours on end. She’d have been lying if she said that part of the reason she continued to stick around  _wasn’t_  Julian.

She doesn’t remember dozing off, but there’s a lull in conversation as they bury their faces in their respective texts, and the next thing she knows, there’s a chilly breeze floating in from the open window, and something heavy and warm is being draped around her shoulders. Nox drags in a slow breath through her nose, prying one dry eye open to peek at Julian as he slides back into his seat across from her. The room has gone dark, the only light coming from the lamp he’d lit at some point while she slept. Prodding with her magic curiously, she finds that Kala has also wandered off, somewhere on the other side of the castle grounds now instead of in the room with them like she had been.

Groaning softy, she buries her face into the crook of her arm, and mumbles, “How long was I out?”

She can hear the smile on Julian’s face when he answers her. “I don’t know. I think I dozed off not long after you did.” She looks up at him over her sleeve and finds one side of his face is more red than the other, hair messy from where his hand must have been holding his head up as he napped. He shrugs at her. “I also think we might have missed dinner.”

Nox groans again. “Great.” Sighing, she pulls his cloak tighter around her shoulders, reaching lazily for the stack of papers by her arm. “Did we make  _any_  progress?”

He just hums. “You wrote down a few potion recipes before you fell asleep. I haven’t come up with anything new yet, besides—well…”

“He won’t like the leech idea, Julian, I can tell you that right now.”

“It could work,” he says, but there’s no real argument in his tone. “…Maybe.”

Nox props her cheek up with her hand and smiles at the look on his face, smiling a little more when his face goes red, and he coughs to hide the smile tugging at his lips.

“I love that you blush with your  _entire_  face, ears, and neck,” she says bluntly, biting back the urge to laugh when he somehow manages to go more red at the compliment. “I’ve always thought it was an endearing trait.”

“Yes, well,” he clears his throat, rubbing at his red cheeks. “Thank you, I suppose. I rather hate it myself.”

She tilts her head at him, pausing for a beat, considering her next words. There are many things she wants to tell him, admiration and adoration blossoming somewhere in her stomach as she lets her gaze trail across his face, hesitating only for a second on his mouth. Her limbs are still heavy with the lingering traces of sleep, and his cloak is warm around her shoulders, thick and smelling faintly of—cologne? It makes her head swim, and her ability to form anything very coherent falters.

“You’re cute,” is what ends up falling from her lips.

Julian, apparently surprised, starts something awful at that, inhaling sharply enough that he begins to cough, knee bumping roughly into leg of the table and sending one of the more precarious stacks of books tumbling to the ground. With an ear-piercing  _crash_ , the books land heavily on the marble, scrolls and papers scattering around the table legs as the two of them flinch, waiting for the books to settle before they move to pick them up. Nox worries in the back of her mind that his face might just stay that color now, unless he bursts a capillary or two, as he drops to his knees, gathering books and papers up haphazardly, fingers shaking. Nox drops beside him, smiling to herself as she helps put everything back on the table.

She’s almost done when the contents of a loose sheet of paper she’d grabbed catches her attention.

“…Julian? Did you draw this?”

Across the page are sketches, doodled in ink. There are notes scattered here and there—unimportant mostly, but the paper is still primarily drawings of a familiar face.

 _Her_  face.

Julian snatches it out of her hand, laughing nervously, and tucks it into the bottom of the pile of papers on the desk, face flushing even more than before. Nox’s lips twitch with the urge to grin, watching him cough and splutter, trying to find the words through a haze of embarrassment. Amused and feeling delightfully warm, Nox carefully pushes some of the books back towards the middle of the table, hopping up to sit on the edge of the desk, swinging her legs as she watches him try to figure out what to say.

“I—they were just—I—I’m,” he cuts off with a huff, rubbing at his burning face. Pinching at the bridge of his nose, he mumbles, “I’m sorry.”

Humming, Nox pulls the paper back out of the stack where he’d stuffed it, smoothing it out and running her fingers over some of the more detailed drawings. A lot of them are just her face as she’s reading—a few are of just her lips, some of them scribbled out in such a way that it looks like he must have been practicing their shape.

“They’re lovely,” she compliments softly, flicking her gaze back up to his and smiling at the startled look of shock that makes his jaw go slack.

“They’re—they  _are_?”

“They are!” She runs her fingers across one of the bigger sketches of her, stretched out on the pillow nest by the big window, reading something while Kala naps behind her. She’s gnawing on her lower lip in that one, and her eyes drift to another one of just her mouth where he’d drawn her biting at her lip again. An idea begins to form in her mind as he leans against the desk beside her, anxiously looking at the paper over her shoulder, and she smiles a little to herself. “Although, I’m not sure of my lips in all of these.”

“Ah—those are—I was trying to get the curve right, but—,” he starts, but she cuts him off with a finger to his lips, making his eyes widen almost comically.

Leaning closer, she looks from one eye to the other, before slowly, deliberately, dropping her gaze to his mouth. “Maybe,” she sighs, leaning closer still, “you just need a closer look.”

She can feel how shallow his breathing goes as she drags her thumb across his bottom lip, watches the way his expression melts, something sweet and yearning settling over his features as his eyes are drawn back to her mouth. Her fingers move from his mouth to curl invitingly under his chin, gently guiding him closer until she can feel his shuddering breaths against her skin. His lips part against hers as she brushes her mouth against his, half expectant and half apprehensive, excited tension deep in his muscles as she sets the paper aside and brings her hand up to fiddle with the flimsy hem of his white shirt.

When she finally kisses him, soft lips sinking deliciously into his, fitting his lower lip comfortably between her own, he makes a quiet noise against her, a desperate little sound that sends heat coiling low in her gut as he kisses her back fervently. Nox lingers as long as she can, shifting her kiss to his upper lip in the next moment, sighing against him contentedly as one of his hands slides up the side of her neck, fingers slipping into the short hair at her nape. His other hand comes to rest on her hip then as the kiss deepens, Julian stepping closer hesitantly as he tilts his head, fingers tightening at the back of her neck, urging her closer, further into his embrace.

Trying to keep her grasp on her sanity, the hand she had under his chin moves to clutch desperately at his shoulder, eyebrows drawing together at the simmering heat in the press of his mouth, the rasping slide of his tongue against hers.  _Oh god_ , she thinks dazedly, heat prickling across her skin and burning at her ears as he continues to kiss her. She’d started this, of course, sick of pining, but she hadn’t expected that he’d be  _so_ —

His fingers curl at the back of her neck, and he pulls lightly at her hair, tilting her head back as he looms over her, so tall and broad that it makes her a little dizzy. She feels the corners of his mouth threaten to tug upward at the muffled groan she gives in response, and she nips at his lip teasingly even as she fights back the urge to grin, too. Her nails dig into the meat of his shoulder as he deepens the kiss again, lips tasting like adoration and heat and liquid desire and—and  _god_ , she can’t remember the last time anyone kissed her quite like this.

She’s just begun to feel wonderfully light-headed when he breaks away with a rough exhale, though he doesn’t go far, pressing his forehead against her temple as he takes a few shaky breaths against the skin on her cheek. Nox lets her hands slide up around his shoulders, fingers winding into his curly red hair, willing her heartbeat to slow just a bit.

She laughs breathlessly after a second, shaking her head as he presses a giddy grin against the side of her face.

“That was even better than I’d hoped it would be,” she laughs, opening her eyes as he pulls back to look at her, both of his hands cupping her face now.

The look of sheer, unrestrained awe on his face brings a fresh swell of heat to her cheeks, and a wave of affection washes over her as she meets his gaze. His grey eyes have darkened as the lamp burns low behind them, pupils blown wide as they zero in on her mouth again, watching his thumb as he drags it across her bottom lip. She watches his face as he stills for a moment, a contemplative look in his eye that makes her think he’s about to lean right back in and pick up where they left off—and then he blinks, meeting her eyes again.

“…Is this real?” he asks softly, and her stomach flips at the slight hoarseness of his voice.

Nox laughs, voice just as hushed as she replies, “As far as I’m aware, yeah.”

“Are you sure? We’re not still asleep?”

She quirks an eyebrow at him and mischief makes a smile dance on the corners of her lips. “I can bite you or something if you’re that unsure.”

The fading blush on his face returns full force at that suggestion, but he doesn’t shy away from it this time, eyeing her mouth for a long moment. Carefully, he leans back in, and her eyes fall shut almost immediately, lips parting expectantly… but nothing happens.

Julian brushes his nose against hers a few times, nudging her bottom lip with his and listening to the hitch in her breath in response. He makes no move to close the final few centimeters between them, though, and she can feel him grin against her mouth as he laughs, warm and deep when she huffs and grumbles, “ _Julian_.”

“Ilya,” he says simply, pressing his lips to hers once, chaste and sweet.

Her stomach flips, and she pulls back to look at him as something like joy bubbles up in her chest. She’s heard other people call him that—mostly just Asra—but she’d been hesitant to call him that without permission. Nox, of all people, knows the value of people calling you exactly what you’ve asked them to call you. She wasn’t about to be the kind of person that went against that request.

“Call me  _Ilya_.”

She grins at him, leaning into his embrace and playing with the hair at the back of his head. “What, really?”

He nods, smiling back at her as he slides his arms down to wrap around her back. “I’ve been waiting for you to pick it up from Asra,” he explains, “but if this isn’t just a one time thing, I’d like it if you’d call me Ilya.”

Delighted, she nods, pressing a pleased kiss to his mouth that both of them smile into. “I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to call you that. And, you know, as picky as I am about  _my_  name, I certainly wasn’t going to call you something else without your permission.”

He hums flatly. “Sweet.”

She rolls her eyes at the attempted jab. “No,  _decent_ , Ilya.”

Nox will swear for years to come that the grin that splits his face actually makes the lamp behind her burn brighter—or maybe its just her magic reacting to the contentment pulsing through her veins. He’s still smiling as he leans back in and—

 

* * *

 

_“Nox!”_

She comes back to herself with a strangled gasp, clutching at her throat and blinking rapidly. There are small, warm hands on her shoulders, a familiar worried voice in her ear, though she can’t quite make out sentences through the sharp, throbbing pain in her head. Something thick and wet drips onto the paper, and Nox slaps a hand over her mouth and nose to catch the blood before more red can stain the paper.

What… what the  _hell_?

She doesn’t remember any of that, but it was very—it had felt  _real_. The library, the warm banter, the feeling of his lips on hers. She’s dizzy with the implications of this new memory, of the physical proof that something like that  _must_ have happened, because how else would these drawings of her face be here? How  _else_ —?

“ _Kala_ ,” is the next word that falls from her lips, barely more than an exhale as her eyes fall on the panther sleeping behind her in one of the sketches. Her familiar.  _Her_  familiar.

How had she forgotten? Even now, memories were swimming back into reach—the jungle on the way to Prakra, the injured cub she’d found and nursed back to health. She’d put so much effort into helping Kala get better, even though she’d had no idea where she was or if she’d ever find her way to her father, if she’d have to turn back and go home with her tail between her legs. Kala had seen her safely into the city, had been there through all of her training. She’d been there that summer that she and Nadia had spent together—had even pushed Nox to pursue the relationship, even though it had had to come to an end with that last festival.

How could she have she forgotten her?  _Where_  was she now? What  _happened_  to her? What happened to them? To everyone?

What  _happened_?

Nox remembers that Portia is present when the paper with the sketches moves from her line of sight, and she looks up at her friend miserably, watching the dawning realization on her face.

“Is this—did you—did you  _know_  him? During the Plague?”

Nox sniffles, shrugging, pinching her nose to try and stop her nosebleed. Her head still throbs, sharp and demanding with every pulse of her heart, but it’s not as overwhelming as it could be. “I don’t know. I can’t—I can’t really remember.”

Portia’s pretty blue eyes move to her face then, concern etched into her face. “That’s right,” she hums, almost to herself. “Milady  _did_  say you also suffer from memory loss, too.”

Concentrating what little energy Nox has left, she uses her magic to heal her nose, sniffing to fight the urge to sneeze as the spell leaves a tingling sensation in its wake.

… _wait_. Why does that feel familiar—?

“I came to get you for dinner,” Portia says, wiping at the drop of blood with a handkerchief before rolling the paper up and handing it to her. Nox’s train of thought is lost as she takes the scroll dazedly. “I’m sure she’ll understand if you need to go lie down, though.”

Nox is shaking her head before Portia can even finish her thought. “No, I have—I’ve a few questions for Nadia.”  _Mainly what she remembers about my giant, spoiled cat._  “I’d appreciate a little help getting to the dining hall, though.”

Portia smiles and the uneasy feeling in her gut eases as she helps her out of the seat, carefully steadying her when Nox sways precariously on her feet as the floor seems to  _rear_  beneath her. She feels raw, like an exposed nerve, as they make their way from the library together, magic prickling and spiking anxiously at every subtle shift at the edge of her consciousness. Just once, as they’re walking, she catches a glimpse of something large and looming, just barely in the corner of her eye, but when she turns her head…

Whatever it was is gone, leaving Nox to press a little closer to her companion in her apprehension.

Unwilling to let her mind play tricks like this, her thoughts wander back to Julian, and his voice echoes in her mind as they turn the last corner on the way to the dining hall.

“ _I know it’s only been a short time… but I feel like I’ve known you for years_.”

Her hand rests lightly over the new lump in her bag where the sheet of drawings rests, and she smiles a little to herself. She’ll have to find time to return these to him one of these days, just to see his reaction.

Maybe there’s a chance for them yet.

**Author's Note:**

> A little something to break my writer’s block. I’ve been wanting to play with the possibility that MC was also on the team of researchers trying to stop the Plague for a while now, especially since some people brought up the idea that Julian’s curse might not be Asra’s handiwork.
> 
> It got a nice response on tumblr, so I thought I'd share it here, too! ^_^
> 
> For more Nox and Julian stuff, come check out their tag on my [tumblr](http://galpalaven.tumblr.com/tagged/julian-x-apprentice)!


End file.
